I have a deck of cards (Wordsmith Deck) with question prompts to jumpstart blog posts. Just ran across it again in my “games” stash…

 

I pulled a card out at random and got this question: What qualities to you admire in yourself?”

 

The ones that pop immediately to mind are PERSISTENCE, OPTIMISM, A PASSION FOR LEARNING, and ALLY-SHIP.

 

Persistence is what it took, and what it still takes, to become and remain a professional writer.  I was a bull-headed teenager, insistent that I would become a writer. Stringing words together is a passion. Nothing (nothing!) makes me feel more alive, more in the zone, more contributory, more happy, except my pets. That might sound perverse to some people, but it’s true. I never married and have no children. My books and my other writing (for clients, relatives, friends, loved ones, and myself) are my children: I produced them, and I’m immensely proud of them. I adopted my pets, so they’re right up there, too. I persist in keeping them happy and healthy, whatever it takes.

 

Optimism has also served me well. Despite disappointments, obstacles, betrayals, and other un-fun stuff, I remain optimistic.  I feel very strongly that our undamaged essences remain robust even when we’re scarred by unfortunate circumstances.  At least, that’s been true for me and my dearest friends, acquaintances and allies.

 

I do get into depression-like troughs when I feed at the politics table for too long at a stretch. As a progressive, a Social Democrat, I sometimes feel the way Mark Twain did toward the end of his life: “People call me a pessimist in my old age, but I’m not. I am an optimist who did not arrive.”

 

I think we should be treating each other better than we do. And by “each other,” I mean everyone, of all shades, nationalities and creeds.  I think the powers that be should be less greedy and more responsive to the needs of their so-called constituents (actually, their neighbors!!!), since we’re supposedly the folks who hired them to REPRESENT us.  That’s all I’ll say about that, because I don’t want to get off on a tangent here, but I’m sick to death of corporations and oligarchs calling all the shots at the expense of the rest of humanity.

 

A PASSION FOR LEARNING (curiosity) is next on today’s list of qualities I admire in myself. I loved school, I have never stopped learning, and I inhale books (mostly nonfiction) like crazy.

 

I have always been gob smacked by the number of people who never pick up another book after graduation.  That’s alarming to me!!!  I used to wonder what the difference is between people who can’t read and people who don’t read.

 

The only difference I can think of is that most people who can’t read wish they could. They KNOW they’re missing out on so much.

 

Graduates seem to believe they already know it all and don’t need to learn anything more.

 

In fact, illiterate people can find out a lot via audiobooks and other help aids, and they do, so that probably puts them ahead of non-readers and others who stop being curious and inquisitive.

 

Finally, ALLY-SHIP. Because I read so much and always have, I’ve lived more than a thousand lives, not just my own.

I have been a swiss girl in the Alps, black  men and women on slave ships and in the U.S. South and on sugar plantations in Haiti, a horse trainer in Saudi Arabia, the observer or owner of animals I have never laid a hand on (owls, otters, beavers, you name it), a queer black transwoman, a Muslim woman, a Jewish man, a concentration camp survivor, and scores more, so I’m able to empathize: I’ve spent enough time in their shoes to understand their perspective, their suffering, and their conscripted lives, so I’m an ally. I want to vote, every time, to help them, to give them an equitable shot at life, and comfort, and affection from others who aren’t like them.  The only bigotry I have is against bigots; the only intolerance I have is intolerance with obstacle-building, greedy bigots.

 

I suppose I could come up with a few additional qualities that I admire in myself, but then I’d have to expound on them some, and I don’t feel like doing much more of that right now.

 

But I will ask those of you who read this far to mention one additional quality that you find admirable in me.  I’m curious as all get out to discover what you consider an admirable quality.  Then tell me three or four of yours. If I can think of additional ones, I’ll respond and let you know so you can add them to your list!

 

This could/should be fun!

 

Your turn.